Financial systems using stored value products are well-known in the art. An example of a stored value product is a pre-paid telephone card, which is typically a plastic or paper card with a unique identification code. The code may be printed on the front of the card, or it may be stored electronically on a magnetic stripe that is attached to the card. To access the value on the card, consumers may, for example, dial a pre-determined phone number and input the unique code, thereby identifying the card and allowing the consumer to access a service (such as long distance telephone service). Besides telephone services, magnetic stripe cards have been used to pre-pay for, among other things, gasoline or department store merchandise. In these industries, special card reading machines such as those found in many retail establishments (e.g. point of sale (POS) terminals) are typically configured to read the magnetic stripes incorporated onto the card.
A relatively new stored value technology is the smartcard which typically replaces the magnetic stripe with a microprocessor. Other stored value products include, for example, ATM cards, at-home banking and many Internet commerce products.
Stored value products have been suggested as a replacement for cash in many transactions because such products have been shown to be secure and convenient without compromising the privacy of the user. Consumers frequently purchase stored value cards for pre-determined amounts, or, alternatively, the card may be configured to hold an electronic representation of value that the consumer has purchased.
However, unlike cash transactions, stored value transactions typically utilize an administrator to facilitate card creation, card distribution, transaction management, and/or the like. Administering institutions frequently support multiple stored value products through computer systems that are configured to track information such as card balances, consumer mailing addresses, financial transactions and/or the like. The interfaces and components associated with each stored value product (smartcard, phone card, ATM card, etc) often require that each product be administered by a dedicated computer system. Accordingly, when administering institutions support multiple stored value products, they often support multiple computer systems. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, these computer systems are frequently disjoint systems configured to support only one particular stored value product. These disjoint systems are usually inefficient because they often incorporate substantial duplication in data and administrative overhead. For example, functions that are commonly implemented on each administration system include, among others: adding new cards, enrolling customers in new accounts, issuing personal identification numbers (PINs), adding value to smartcards and other accounts, handling transactions (merchant, ATM, telephone, etc.), and generating reports (such as billing statements and letters to consumers). An example of such a prior art pre-paid card system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,109 issued on Nov. 19, 1996 to Stimson et al., which is incorporated herein by reference. Similarly, a system for supporting multiple functionality on a single card is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,574,269 issued on Nov. 12, 1996 to Mori et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
Recently, as shown in FIG. 1B, some disjoint administrative systems have become somewhat more integrated through the sharing of limited functionality such as card authorization and transaction processing. Although this arrangement is improved over that of FIG. 1A in that it is somewhat less redundant, the FIG. 1B arrangement still includes substantial duplication of information and administration because each program incorporates data records and general parameters such as currency type, language used, etc. Disjoint systems exhibit a further disadvantage in that each administration system is typically individually constructed, thus requiring excessive time, labor and expense to create, maintain and operate.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a card management system that will simultaneously support various stored value products and their associated functions. Such a system is needed to reduce implementation times, to improve data processing efficiency and to reduce administrative overhead for each system.